Hey everyone!

Due to the general chaos of school and wrapping things up for graduation (which is a totally scary separate thing in itself), I’ve had to put my reading on hold. Normally I’d be breezing through All the Crooked Saints right now, but when I have free time, I usually end up just staring at the ceiling and contemplating my life choices. It’s some good stuff.

I miss summer. I was reading a lot. We spent two weeks visiting my dad’s family in Croatia, and while Croatia is beautiful and I love my family, I found myself with huge chunks of free time—free time without a computer or phone (not that we didn’t have those, mind you, but because there was only one adapter that was able to convert the American outlets to the European plugs). So I read—a lot.

I finished a lot of books I’ve had on my to-read list for literal years. They were:

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (This one I actually finished before vacation, but I’m still tagging it on this list as ‘books I read during summer when I had no pressing matters to attend to.’)

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Far from the Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

I honestly wish I had brought some more! So I’ve been thinking about my current to-read list and what I’m going to finally start on when winter break rolls around and I’m looking to keep myself occupied. It’s a mix of YA books and classics. Here’s my Top Ten yo Read!

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Honestly, why haven’t I read this yet? It’s been at the top of the charts forever. SMH @ me.

Dress Codse for Small Towns

I’m a sucker for small town coming-of-age novels. The reviews look super promising.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackeni Lee

Ugh this one has been on my list  f o r e v e r. Get on that, Petrana.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Okay, so I have complicated feelings about John Green—I think he’s overhyped, but I also don’t think he deserves the vilification he gets. REGARDLESS, a trusted friend of mine said I would enjoy this, so it is on my list. Will report back.

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

Same trusted friend also recommended me this because it reminds her of one of my characters.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Because I need to ease into James Joyce and I don’t want to tackle Ulysses just yet…

Middlemarch by George Eliot

I realized while taken the Literature GRE that I have not read a George Eliot novel and that’s honestly a shame and the bit of Middlemarch that was included was so delightful that I really want to give this a good tackle. I picked up a nice copy at the used book sale two weeks ago!

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Since finishing Mrs. Dalloway, I’ve been on a Virginia Woolf kick.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

My boyfriend’s grandma has been recommending me Edith Wharton for months now and this has been on my shelf for a while.

Sour Heart: Stories by Jenny Zhang

I found this amazing essay she wrote for Buzzfeed and it really resonated with me so I definitely want to check out her stories!

What’s on your Top Ten to Read list?